Second chances
by Female-Typhoon
Summary: I wrote this as a one-shot but it became too long so i split it down into 8 parts. some content may upset some people (includes relationship issues and abortions) based one year after Cell is defeated.
1. Part 1

A?N: as this was intended to be a one shot but went on for too long there will not be an excessive ammountof Authors Notes. there will be warning at the begining of the chapters that contain material which may have an impact upon some unfortunate people out there. I have never been in the situation that i have put Bulma in here and so i may have gottne some facts mixed up, if this is the case i will be happy to change them. the last thing this fic is intending is to insult people.

the setting is one year after Cell is defeated. i'm not going into too much detail now as everything is explained in due course in the story.

happy readings Female Typhoon

**Second Chances pt 1**

"Honey, I have breakfast for you! Do you want me to bring it in?" the annoyingly happy voice chirped in a merry sing-song tone from behind the door to the tastefully decorated bedroom. The only response was a disembodied groan, muffled by an expensive and well-fluffed pillow as the occupant of the large four-poster bed was forced into reluctant consciousness. The red silk sheets were twisted and the thick quilt was in a pile on the floor besides the bed.

"Go away mom" the woman in the bed mumbled as she half-heartedly tried to remove her legs from the clammy tangle of silk which was holding them prisoner. Her attempts to extract herself from her bed were eventually successful as she clawed herself up into a crouching position as she leaned on a bed post for stability.

"Oh now honey, you need to keep up your strength for that little baby boy of yours! And that means that you have to eat a lovely full breakfast!" Mrs Briefs said happily as she opened the door and walked into the room pacing the breakfast tray on the dresser, "now you get up this instant young lady."

"Oh mum" cant you have given me just a few more moments? I'm absolutely shattered!" Bulma moaned as she fell back on her bed pulling a sheet back up over her head.

"Well no wonder! After you were out all night with your friends, and then you guys had that sleepover! Everyone's downstairs already, well, all except Yamcha...that adorable little Krillin said he hadn't seen him all night, not since you went to bed....oh well, he must have gone home early, perhaps he forgot something? Do you know what happened to him honey? I hope he's allrite!" Mrs briefs chatted away to the foggy headed Bulma who merely covered her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Mom please...."

"No buts young lady, now I want you to go and take a shower then get something to eat! I've fed baby Trunks this morning so once you have sorted yourself out you can give him his afternoon feed cant you? Now come on, you have guests to see to!" she said as she walked out of the room humming a happy tune. Once again Bulma found herself wondering how anyone could possibly be that merry in the morning as she finally managed to drag herself out of bed and staggered towards the en-suit bathroom. She winced as she turned the bathroom light on when the brightness hurt her eyes. Her image in the mirror was enough to repel a dinosaur with just one glance.

"Oh my gosh!" Bulma sighed as she tugged at her tangled blue hair, "Vegeta would have a field day with this one!" she chuckled grimly to herself as she turned towards the shower, "yeah! If he were here that is!" she mumbled bitterly as she stepped into the stream of hot water and tried to wake up.

"Well, good morning Bulma! Finally decided to join the land of the living, eh?" Krillin chuckled as Bulma shuffled groggily into the kitchen putting the still full breakfast tray on the side counter and slumped down in one of the kitchen chairs.

"Shut up Krillin, I blame you ya know!" she groaned as she folded her arms on the tale then leant her head on them.

"Oooh! Haha, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning!" Krillin laughed as he poked Bulma in the shoulder with a spoon.

"KRILLIN!!!" she yelled, regretting it as son as the words left her mouth, her head felt like it was about to burst like a dropped watermelon!! "Quit it or I will kill you with that spoon!" Bulma threatened in a slightly quieter voice, as she pulled it from his hand and shook it in his face, "and I swear it will be very, very painful!"

"Whoa, err heh heh, easy now Bulma! I was only kidding!"

"Yeah Bulma, he didn't mean anything by it!" Gohan chirped from behind his mountain of food which he was devouring at a rate his father would have been proud of.

"Whatever, where's everyone else anyway?" Bulma mumbled as she poured herself a cup of coffee to wake herself up.

"Well Tien and Chau-su left early, they said they got a long trip ahead of them, Yajirobe said he had a creepy feeling that something was gonna happen so he left too." Krillin said as he kept one eye on the spoon Bulma was using to stir her coffee.

"Hhmmm, that's strange, he's never turned down my mothers cooking before!"

"Or mine!" Chi-Chi said as she brought over a plate full of fresh fluffy pancakes and placed them on the solid oak breakfast table, "help yourselves everyone, there's plenty more where that came from!"

"Oh Chi-Chi! Come on! Your supposed to be a guest here! You shouldn't have to do that!" Bulma's groaned as she realised what her friend was doing, she made the mistake of standing up too quickly and was promptly reprimanded by the throbbing pain in her head, "oh...geez!" she hissed as she sat back down slowly while holding her head.

"Heehaw, sounds like someone has a hangover!" Oolong laughed as he stuffed some pancakes into his mouth. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a shadowy figure creeping into the kitchen and snook up right behind Bulma. Bulma, however, was completely unaware as she wallowed in the self pity of her raging hangover. As she slowly lifted her head to ask her mother for some pain killers a pair of thin bony hands clamped down on her shoulders.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEE!" she shrieked as she span round and landed a lucky back hander on her assailants face.

"Ooff! My, my young lady! You have certainly become stronger eh? But still no less beautiful!" the old man said as he picked himself up from the floor and dusted himself off, with a grin that made Bulma want to slap him again!

"Hahahahahaaa!" Oolong fell into hysterics as well as Krillin and Gohan who was trying desperately not to choke on the Saiyan-sized mouthful he was currently trying to chew.

"Boy Roshi! She sure slugged you one! Hahaha!" Krillin barked out as he griped his sides to stop the pain of laughing too hard, "you wanna be more careful from now on! You know livin' with that Vegeta's gonna have some kind of effect on her!" Krillin laughed even harder at his own joke along with Oolong and master Roshi who was chuckling to himself as he sat down and helped himself to some pancakes. Bulma sat down slowly and lay her head on the table with a groan and Gohan gave his breakfast a scowl worthy of his mother.

"Humph! Well she's much better off without that monster around if you ask me!" Chi-Chi said as she put another plate of pancakes on the table and sat down and helped herself to a couple, "honestly Bulma, I cant understand why you put up with him for so long! That _creature_ is nothing but trouble! It's a wonder he didn't try to kill us all! Not that he would have gotten very far! My Goku would have stopped him, that's for sure! He was probably just waiting for the right time! Ooohhh, when I think of all the completely evil things that monster has done it makes me so angry!!!"

"Mom...." Gohan tried to warn his mother off the subject he was sure would spark an argument.

"No Gohan! That man...oohh, he cant even be called a man! He is nothing but a monster! A deceitful, arrogant, selfish, mass-murdering _monster_!!!"

"SHUT UP!" Bulma suddenly shouted as she slammed her clenched fists down on the table, hangover forgotten, "just shut up! I will not hear talk like that in my house!"

"It needs to be said Bulma! He was and still is a monster! Nothing good will ever come from his existence mark my words!"

"And what about trunks?" Bulma hissed venomously, "if nothing good can ever come from Vegeta then that must mean that my son is destined to be the same eh? The sins of the farther are passed down to the son I see!" she said as anger flashed dangerously in her eyes. She got up from her chair and turned to leave the room, at the doorway to the kitchen she paused and turned her rage filled glare on one of her oldest friends, "get out of my house Chi-Chi, I understand why you said what you did but I do not wish to hear it here!" with that she left the room and climbed the stairs to the second level of her home and entered one of the rooms. It was a large room considering the size of its occupant and was lavishly decorated with different shades of blue ranging from the pale blue of the spring sky to the deep royal blue which seemed to suit the infants farther perfectly. The solid wood crib in the centre of the room was quite simple compared to the lavish surroundings and intricate patterns on the walls and in the toys scattered around the perimeter of the room. Bulma walked towards the crib and looked in on its sleeping occupant, she ran her hands lightly over the head-board of the crib and allowed the tips of her fingers to trace the single symbol that decorated the baby's bed. She had no idea what it meant, it was in a language that had all but died out with only one person left alive that could understand it and she had no intention of tracking down her elusive house guest in order to ask. A single tear slipped down her cheek and dripped carelessly onto the sleeping baby's head, waking him from his peaceful slumber.

"Oh I'm sorry baby," she whispered softly as she lifted the baby boy into her arms, "don't you pay any attention to aunt Chi-Chi, your daddy may have made some bad mistakes, but he's different now. Yes he is!" she cooed and she sat back in the old rocking chair which had once belonged to her grandmother. She sniffed lightly as she tried not to cry, her son had the strange ability to sense her emotions, especially when she was distressed. She looked down at the face of her child which held so much of his farther even at such an early age but it was clear who's colouring he got. Wide blue eyes blinked owlishly up at her as she smoothed down the few wisps of lavender hair that poked out from under the pointy eared baby cap.

"How are my two little angels?" Dr Briefs said softly as he poked his head into the room round he door.

"Yeah, were ok, aren't we trunks? Were doing just fine." Bulma smiled sadly as she put her baby back into his crib where he picked up his blue rattle and promptly tried to shove the entire thing in his mouth. Bulma followed her farther out of the baby's room and into the second level lounge down the hall.

"Now, are you going to talk to me or are you just going to keep on denying the fact that your completely miserable?" Dr Briefs said as he sat down next to his daughter on the large sofa.

"I'm sure I don't know what your talking about dad."

"Bulma."

"Oh ok," she sighed as the tears began to flow freely down her cheeks, "I don't know what to do dad, I just miss him so much! I know I shouldn't, we argued all the time and he was constantly rude to me! But since he left, I don't know what to do! I thought I could cope and I can, really, I've been doing fine, as long as I have something to focus on but I just feel so lonely!" she cried as she buried her face into her fathers chest, "its been months dad! Almost a year since cell was destroyed! I just don't understand, no one knows where he is! Gohan says he hasn't been able to sense him which means he isn't training and there hasn't been any space ship activity at all! Not that he could get a ship from anywhere but that's not the point! I'm so worried dad! I know he'd say I should have more faith in him but I'm so afraid that something terrible has happened to the jerk!"

"You've kept this bottle up inside you for a while haven't you?"

"I thought I was coping fine! Really I did! Oh dad, what's wrong with me! I knew what type of man he was when I got involved with him!" she continued to wail as she finally let out everything she had been holding in for months.

"Nothing is wrong with you Bulma, now don't be silly! You fell in love with him and there's no changing that now, believe me, love is a funny thing! Just look at your mother and me, hardly the most obvious couple in the world are we?"

"Oh daddy! You know that's not the same! Mom may be a little ditzy but she hardly compares to the type of person Vegeta is! Just think dad, how many people has he killed? How can I possibly forgive him of all of that?"

"Bulma, honey. If you look deep inside your heart, do you still believe that he is the same as he was back then? I'm not asking you if you forgive him for everything that he did before he came here, but do you really believe that he hasn't changed? If you do then you're right, you are better off without him. But if you don't, and you think he is a different man than the one that landed here a few years ago, then there is nothing that anyone can say to change the way you feel about him." With one last pat on his daughters back he got up and left the room leaving Bulma alone to contemplate the full extent of her feelings for the missing prince.


	2. Part 2

**Second Chances pt2**

For the third morning that week Bulma woke up with an overwhelming feeling of nausea. She scrambled out of bed and ran strait into her bathroom and promptly threw up in the toilet. Once she had completely emptied her stomach of its contents she sagged against the bathroom floor leaning her head against the cold tiles.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" she asked breathlessly as she took a deep breath and resisted the urge to try and throw up again. After a while she recovered and hauled herself up off the floor and back into her room, she got changed into her comfortable sweat pants and loose fitting t-shirt and shuffled down the hall to her baby sons room. She was somewhat surprised to see her mother already in there holding the baby and grinning down at him while making strange noises which made the baby giggle.

"Good morning honey, still being ill?" she asked when she noticed her only daughter standing in the doorway.

"Yes, I don't know what's wrong, its always in the morning and for the rest of the day I feel fine!" Bulma said as she went to the baby cabinet and got out the pre-prepared bottle for baby trunk's morning feed. She took the baby from her mother and sat back in the rocking chair and grinned as she watched trunk's drink down the milk as tho he had never been fed before.

"Hmm. Isn't it funny tho?" Mrs briefs said with a little giggle before she turned to leave the room.

"What's that supposed to mean mom?" Bulma asked with a puzzled look on her face, she knew that her mother was quite smart despite has ditzy she may look, she had the weird ability to see things in people that weren't necessarily obvious. She had after all thought Vegeta was a 'nice young man', but that was open to interpretation.

"Well," her mother said as she turned round in the doorway, "its just funny how the only time you're sick is in the mornings isn't it? Sort of like before you had trunks. Oh well." And with that she was gone before she could see the blood drain completely from her daughters face.

'It cant be' Bulma thought to herself in a panic, no matter how she looked at it, there was no denying that her present condition was almost exactly the same as when she first found out that she was pregnant with trunks, "It's just not possible!" suddenly, a cold chill shot down her spine as she recalled the fact that her morning sickness first began 2 weeks after the night she slept with Vegeta. It was almost exactly two weeks since the party she had with the other Z-fighters.

"Oh don't be stupid Bulma!" she reprimanded herself aloud, "it couldn't possibly be that!" but no matter how many times she told herself that the nagging doubt was sill firmly planted in the back of her mind. The fact that she couldn't remember what had happened for the later part of that night was not a good sign and the fact that she couldn't remember going to bed was even worse!

"It wont hurt in proving that it isn't true!" she finally decided as she put trunks back in his crib. At nearly a year and a half old he was growing quickly and being a single mom was beginning to take its toll on her sanity. She had lost him a couple of times already after he had broke out of his crib and crawled away. Getting himself lost around the compound. Baby Trunks had eventually turned up in the pantry, naturally, munching happily on his second box of Animal Crackers.

She made her way back into her bathroom and opened the locked medicine cabinet behind the mirror. She stood staring at it for what seemed like hours before she reached up and took the pregnancy testing kit from the top shelf. When she had first thought she may be pregnant by Vegeta she had bought 5 of the at-home tests but only used 4 before she went to the doctors for absolute confirmation. She sat back on the toilet seat and stared at the packet, time seemed to slow down as she read the accuracy rating over and over again.

"I dot know why I'm so worried, its going to be negative!" she said with a laugh as she tore open the box and locked the bathroom door just in case her inquisitive mother decided to investigate.

5 minutes later she was sat on her bed staring at the pregnancy tester in her trembling hands. As the readout came clearly into view she forced herself to stay conscious as she threw the offending piece of equipment across the room where it slammed against the wall and smashed. With a fear in her eyes that made her look like a rabbit in car headlights she grabbed her coat and ran down the stairs, grabbed her car keys and flew out of the door slamming it behind her. She furiously rubbed the tears from her eyes and set her face in a vicious frown that would have made the fiery Saiyan prince look twice.


	3. Part 3

**Second Chances pt 3**

After spending 10 minutes trying to quietly get the receptionist at the doctors to give her an immediate appointment Bulma finally resorted to threatening the life of the unlucky young woman while wielding a sharp pencil like a deadly weapon. Eventually, after scaring away most of the other patients, she managed to get an appointment and was soon sat in the doctors office facing the embarrassing task of explaining her situation.

"Well..." she began as she took a deep breath while the doctor looked her in the eye, waiting for her explanation, "I did a home pregnancy test and it came back...positive." She said as she bit her bottom lip nervously as if she expected the doctor to reprimand her.

"Well, congratulations?" the doctor said with a slightly puzzled look on his face.

"No, not congratulations!"

"Oh, I take it this is an unplanned pregnancy then?"

"Of course it is!!! The thing is tho... Trunks, my other baby, well, I haven't seen his farther for almost a year..." Bulma confessed

"Aahhhh"

"What is that supposed to mean! I didn't cheat on him!! He just disappeared! I have no clue as to where he is, or when he's coming back, if at all!!" she screeched as her temper reached boiling point, "the thing is... I don't even remember... having... sex with anyone else." She finished off weakly.

"Do you think you were raped?" the young doctor asked softly, as if the walls could overhear their conversation.

"I don't know! I don't think so, I had a party about 3 weeks ago, all of my old friends stayed over at the main capsule corp. residential building. That is the first time in ages I have had anything alcoholic to drink, I cant remember going to bed. But I trust all my friends with my life!" she forced herself not to cry in front of the young doctor as she voiced the thoughts she was trying to deny.

"We can do a more accurate pregnancy test here that would estimate how long ago the conception was but I recommend talking to some of your friends, ask them if they noticed any one else acting different, or if anyone... disappeared about the same time as you went to bed. Excessive alcohol consumption can affect everyone in ways they don't expect. In all likely hood, if it was one of your friends, then they may not have known what was going on either." He said as she nodded silently as she fixed her gaze firmly on the floor. He called in the nurse and explained that Bulma required a pregnancy test with discretion to her circumstances and then showed Bulma into the nurses room and left them in privacy.

Mr and Mrs Briefs were sat in the kitchen with large mugs of hot chocolate when Bulma walked numbly into the large house. She was as white as a sheet and her eyes held a far away look. She walked directly up into her bedroom and softly shut the door behind her. She sat down on the bed and gazed around the room slowly, everything seemed surreal, like nothing was in focus but she could see clearly. She picked up the phone and stared at it for the longest time before she dialled the other woman's number.

"Hello?" a young voice which held a strange worldly tone behind it answered first.

"Hi Gohan, is your mother in." Bulma asked as she hoped her voice sounded calm and strong, everything she wasn't feeling inside.

"Oh hi Bulma! Yeah, I'll just get her for you!" he said happily, Bulma could easily imagine the grin on his face as he said it, the perfect mirror of his father, "MOM! BULMAS ON THE PHONE!!!" she heard him bellow, she could even hear his mothers angry shout, reprimanding him for raising his voice.

"Hello?" chichi asked as she took the phone from her young son.

"Hi chichi," Bulma said

"Bulma, what's wrong, you sound exhausted!" chichi said with a note of surprise in her voice.

"Yeah, well... anyway, this may sound a bit strange but can you remember what happened the night of my party?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Do you remember anyone acting a little strange that night?"

"Well, you were so drunk you almost passed out in the living room!"

"I mean besides me!" she snapped a little more irritably than she had meant.

"Well... not really, the only other thing that was a little strange was Yamcha, he disappeared some time during the night, not exactly sure when. Puar had got to the Champaign so she was a little woozy but she said Yamcha hadn't gone far but she couldn't tell exactly where he was...why?"

"Oh no reason."

"No, tell me." Chichi pressed

"Well..." Bulma hesitated as she came up with a reason to tell her friend, she trusted chichi, really she did. But they were only friends because Goku was her best friend in the world and had been since they were children. "something got broken and was just hidden in a draw... it wasn't really valuable its just I wanted to know what happened, it was in a private room that's all." She said weakly.

"Oh, well, only Yamcha, everyone else stayed in the living room or the dining room, I forced that old leech Roshi and the pig to stay in the room. Unfortunately they did order pay-per-view porn on you TV, I forced him to pay himself tho so don't worry about that." Chichi said helpfully.

"Thanks chi, I'll... see you later." Bulma sighed and hung up before the other woman could say anything. Bulma just sat there on her bed staring blankly ahead.

Yamcha was the father, it was all but obvious! As a million different thoughts and feelings span round endlessly in her head only one was strong enough to break the surface. She felt dirty. She felt like she had committed the worst crime in the world and had betrayed not only herself but Vegeta too. Even if she hadn't seen so much as a hair from him since the day the other Trunks had left to return to his own timeline, she still felt connected to him. It shocked her to feel how deep her affections for him actually ran. She had thought she had been in love with Yamcha, her hunky desert bandit whom she had met almost a decade ago when he had tried to rob her and Goku of their possessions. But what she felt for Vegeta ran so much deeper than her feelings for Yamcha ever had. In comparison, Yamcha was just some sort of fleeting schoolgirl crush!

Suddenly she stood and strode quickly into her bathroom and jumped into the steaming hot shower and turned the water pressure up as high as it would go. She stood there focusing on the feeling of the water pounding against her body as she scrubbed her skin raw while the tears began to stream down her face. Eventually her emotions got the better of her and she collapsed in a heap on the floor of the shower block and cried in a way that she hadn't done since she was a little girl.

* * *

Out in the desert a darker shadow among the shadows of the tall cliff face paused in his slow ascent up the mountain. Not for the first time he glanced to the western horizon as if he were looking for something. An all too familiar pang of guilt slashed at his newly thawed heart and he winced visibly. With an irritated sigh he turned back to the mountainside and continued with his climb.


	4. Part 4

this chapter contains details of a traumatic event. if the prospect of an abotrion upsets you in any way that i suggest you discontinue reading this story. your oppinions are very welcome

**Second Chances pt 4**

A month and a half she had to wait. Six weeks she had to walk around with a child she didn't want growing inside her. She had tried all the respectable clinics round the world but none of them would take her. None of them wanted the scandal and bad media attention that would come as a result of the infamous Bulma Briefs having an abortion. It would start riots, protestors would boycott capsule corporation's products and would probably form some sort of protest outside her house.

She had to admit she didn't want that either but still, she just could not keep the baby. The only clinic that would take her insisted on a long waiting time 'just in case she change her mind'. Well she had defiantly had enough time to think it all over. Every time she thought of keeping the baby she could just imagine the lengths that Yamcha would go to, to worm his way back into her life. She knew that he hadn't raped her, he would never had done that no matter how drunk he was, one word to any of the other warriors and he would have had to eat thru a straw for the longest time and Vegeta would have killed him! In the few months that she was actually _with _Vegeta she learned just how possessive the Saiyan prince could be. It wasn't out of any sense of 'ownership', she was far too strong willed to let anyone treat her like that, but it was out of his need to protect her and his own pride. No matter how many times she tried to tell him he would not get rid of the delusion that if any of the other Z-fighters found out about them then they would kill her just to get at him!

She had made the appointment at the clinic immediately and willed away the time anxiously. Finally, the date had arrived and she was able to get rid of the thing growing inside her. The decision to have an abortion was tearing her up inside, she had not come to the decision to keep the appointment lightly.

If she were to keep the baby what kind of life would it have? One where its mother and farther had no relationship together other than friendship? One where the farther of its half brother would detest its mere presence? The situation would inevitably drive her mad and that was no way to bring up a child. So she had finally decided to go thru with the abortion on her own. She was strong enough to handle it and she didn't need any of her friends trying to talk her out of it as she knew they would.

She pulled into the clinic car park and got out of her car. A tingle ran down her spine and she found herself gazing sadly towards the eastern horizon. She shook off the strange feeling that washed over her and walked towards the main building of the clinic.

The interior décor was just like any normal doctors waiting room, all pale colours and pastels that were meant to relax and calm you. They didn't work very well. She gave her name to the receptionist who then instructed her to sit in the waiting room. She only sat down for a few moments when a nurse came out of one of the rooms and called her name. when she saw the doctor that was going to perform the procedure she felt physically ill but suppressed the urge to throw up. She had decided to go thru with it and no matter how much it hurt now, it would be a thousand times worse for the child growing up in the only environment which she could provide it with. She filled out all the paperwork necessary and told the doctor for the third time that she was absolutely-positively sure that it was necessary and signed the consent form. She would stick with her decision, no matter what.

* * *

Outside the city a large sand storm howled wildly thrashing angrily at the one creature in its midst that refused to surrender and hide from the driving winds. He squinted and shielded his eyes with his hand as he forced his feet to keep moving. One year he had forced himself to stay away, he had a lot to think about but try as he might he could no longer resist the urge to return to her. Before he had left he would have snarled an the mere thought of her getting so deep under his skin to his icy heart which he went so far as to deny he had. Recently he had been getting a strange feeling from somewhere within him. He couldn't explain it, it was like nothing he had ever felt before. It wasn't pain but it made his breath catch in his throat and made his heart race in near panic. Still he didn't want to believe that he was crawling back to her on his belly, so he walked and thought some more. He had avoided using excessive amounts of energy since he left, the last thing he wanted was to have the nosy Namek or the annoying low born half-breed brat turning up unexpectedly, asking questions. He knew he was getting out of shape but frankly, he was past caring. What was the point of training when the only opponent in the universe he needed to defeat had sacrificed himself so selflessly for the good of the miserable mud ball that was completely oblivious to his noble sacrifice.

The only challenge he had left was the boy, but he couldn't even face him now. The boy, Gohan, had not only lost a father due to the idiots _compassion_ but he had also managed to do what Vegeta had not. He had been the one to defeat Cell where Vegeta had only allowed the monster to grow to its foulest ultimate power. The arrogant warrior had believed himself to be as powerful as any mortal could possibly become and thought that the ultimate power of 'perfect cell' was nothing compared to his ability to transform into super Saiyan. Not only had his arrogance landed him with the pounding of his life but it had also lead to the death of his future son! Even if his death was 'short lived' so to speak, thanks to the dragons ability to grant him his life back.

It had taken Vegeta a long time to come to terms with the fact that he was now the last. There were no more full blooded Saiyan's left anywhere in the universe except for him. Oh the blood of the Saiyan's would not die out so easily, it would continue for generations from his own blood line and that of Kakarot's brat. He was sure that Raditz had left a string of half breeds across the universe, discreetly concealed amongst the people of their mothers. But Nappa, when he had taken a woman she was going to her doom. Those females rarely survived and it never failed to sicken the young prince when he saw the end result of his bodyguards attentions. It was at that time that the prince had vowed he would not act like his idiot body guard. Despite his extensive training to become Freeza's most deadly killer he had never committed the crimes his companions had. Sure he had been the direct cause of death of many women and children. But in every case their death was quick and he had never raped a woman. Zarbon had tormented him with offers to introduce the young prince to some of the armies many prostitutes but he had snorted and said that none of them were to his high standards, being a prince and all.

He had been laughed at, and Freeza constantly tormented him with it, saying that if the young prince ever found a woman then she wold be killed. Vegeta was Freeza's toy and Freeza's alone.

That was the basis for his belief that females were only a distraction and a weakness. Something that took away attention and could be taken away and used against you. He had little trust in the other fighters on this planet, especially the warrior Yamcha. He wasn't enough to cause a threat to him personally but he was like an annoying insect that constantly kept biting bit by bit. Of all the warriors from this planet he was the one that had shown the most resentment. Mainly because Vegeta had immediately gone to stay at capsule corporation and Bulma's home. Yamcha had believed that Vegeta was trying to 'make a move on his girl' and had constantly protested Bulma's decision to take him in.

Bulma. The first time he had seen her on planet Namek she was quivering in fear but had still remained strong. She hadn't run away or fainted like so many others would have. The silly creature had actually believed that Zarbon was there to help them, until he transformed that is. The sight of the disgusting lizard had defiantly wiped that stupid grin off her face. Then later on earth, when Freeza and king Cold had landed, she had stood with the others, just as scared as everyone else but still she refused to run and hide. She faced her fears head on and for that he had to give her credit. She had even put herself in danger when the warriors were trying to stop Dr Gyro from awakening any more of his androids, all because she wanted Vegeta to see his baby son. The insufferable psychotic Dr had shot her plane right out of the sky, and Vegeta had done nothing. Absolutely nothing. His future son had been furious with him at letting her fall after he had caught her and his young self as they plummeted towards the rocky ground. There was never any doubt in his mind that one of the others would save her. If Gyro has seen him save her, he dreaded to think what the diabolical android would have done.

His self control was put to the ultimate test when the monster Cell had killed the boy from the future, and it had broken. He had seen red and attacked the android in a blind rage, even if the sheer ferociousness and unpredictability of his attack, which held enough power to tear the planet apart, had taken Cell by surprise.

The warrior shuddered as he tried to banish the memory from his mind. He was not proud of the way he had acted by throwing that attack, he always felt the need to be in complete control and hated the feeling that his control had been taken away from him. But he was even less proud of the fact that he had allowed the monster to take the life of his son.

When he had looked into the boys eyes during the battle he had seen more of himself in them than he wanted to think about. The young half Saiyan had been through a lot during his childhood, been brought up in the heat of battle with the fire that called his people to the fight coursing thru his veins without restraint. Vegeta was surprised to see a large part of the boys mother staring back at him. It was a strange sensation, two people, brought up in completely different ways, one in perpetual battle and the other in the sheltered surroundings of her rich fathers home, melded into one compassionate yet vicious fighting force the like of which he had never seen.

As he blinked sand out of his eyes and squinted ahead he noticed the storm had let up considerably. He now could make out the dark lines of the buildings of the large city in which the capsule corporation residential estate was located. He plodded on, forcing his feet to take each step. He was near exhausted and he knew that he must have looked like he had been dragged backwards thru a few thousand hedgerows but he cared little of peoples opinion about him. Especially the people of this planet, well except for one. If she could have seen him at that moment she would have been by his side in a heart beat and would practically manhandle him into the infirmary room at their grand mansion, insisting that he get the medical attention he needs. He smirked slightly as he thought of the concerned look that would spread upon her face, which would then mingle with one of stubborn caring as she forced him to comply with her suggestions.

The winds eased up considerably as he entered the outermost regions of the city and began making his way down the maze of streets towards the complex that had somehow become his home, without him even noticing it.

* * *

A/N: i appologise if i have gotten any facts wrong. if i have then please let me know and i will change them.


	5. Part 5

**Second Chances pt 5**

Dr Briefs and his wife were sat by themselves at the kitchen table with their empty dinner plates sat in front of them as they lazily finished the glasses of wine they were holding. The rest of the chairs around the table remained unoccupied. Bulma wasn't home yet and hadn't been since the day before. Not that her parents were worried. The enthusiastic young business woman would always go off on a whim after some new idea. Being late for dinner was nothing new. Tonight, however there was definitely something in the air, even the birds had stopped singing. A shiver ran down Dr Briefs' spine and he was sure the air around him had dropped a few degrees. He looked around as if he could sense that there was someone stood just over his shoulder but the rest of the kitchen was empty. It was impossible to see out of the windows into the darkness outside so he just shrugged the feeling off as his wife got up to clear the plates. The baby monitor on the countertop blurted out the sound of the baby's gurgle as he slept up in his room. Dr briefs stared at the small white speaker as if it would somehow show him what the noise that had come from the baby's mouth was in aid of. No more noise came from the speaker save for the slight rustling of the thin sheet covering the little boy.

Mrs briefs left the room humming happily as she made her way into the living room and turned on the TV to her favourite soaps. Dr Briefs retrieved the baby monitor and went towards the stairs that lead down to his basement laboratory. He placed the speaker on the table and turned to his latest invention. Within 10 minuets he was so engrossed in his work that the house above his head could have exploded and he wouldn't have heard a peep.

The figure silently moved into the room from the balcony windows which were previously shut tight. He skirted the walls and ran his hand across soft sheets still tangled from its occupants previous night of failed sleep. He frowned slightly as the last lingering scent of salt on the pillow that lay at an odd angle on the disturbed side of the bed. Her scent was everywhere in the room, on every piece of furniture. He moved towards the door when another scent caught his attention. The wardrobe door was left open and a shirt was laying in a crumpled heap on the ground next to it. He slowly retrieved the item of clothing from its resting place and his frown deepened. The garish pink shirt she had given him upon his return from the dead was all but soaked in salt water; the woman's tears.

A thin wail from the next room called his attention away from the track his thoughts were travelling. He carefully walked out of the room and down the hall, avoiding the creaky floorboards, and entered the room filled with every baby's toy money could buy. As the door softly clicked shut behind him he took a deep breath. His eyes could easily pick out the shape of the cot in the dark room and his sensitive ears could pick out the tiny breaths its occupant was taking in his peaceful sleep. Slowly, as if he had to force his own feet to move even the tiniest step, he moved towards the centre of the room where the baby's cot lay. His hands, which he had washed clean of his own blood earlier, griped the rail of the pale blue cot as he came to a stop next to it. He took another deep breath and leaned over the rail of the cot to look for the first time in a year at the face of his infant son.

As if the child could feel the presence of another in his room he stirred in his sleep before waking up completely and blinked owlishly up into the darkness. He pulled himself into a sitting position and reached his chubby little arms up towards the man that leaned over him with a poorly hid look of wonder upon his face. The boy frowned as his efforts gained no response from the shadowy figure and so increased his efforts by hauling himself up onto his feet by the bars of his cot. Vegeta stood and watched as the boy fell back into the sitting position he started from. His frown tuned into a frustrated scowl as he glared at his own legs as if he blamed them. He then tried again and again and again, each time standing for a little longer until he succeeded in his task. The boy blinked as he looked down at his feet with before his gaze rose once again to the face of his father who wore a small smirk on his stony face. The large hand which was gripping the rails moved round to scoop him up out of the cot and brought him up to eye level.

The baby blinked twice before frowning again and reaching out his chubby little hands to pat his father on the forehead.

"Papa!" the boy squawked suddenly in his high pitched baby voice as he pointed at the space between Vegeta's eyes. That had caught Vegeta by surprise, he hadn't expected the woman to teach him that word at all. He supposed that the boy had just heard Bulma talking to her father and just picked up the word. "papa! Papa! Papa!" the boy crowed happily as he kept on pointing at the frown lines between his fathers eyes. When he didn't get any response the small boy scowled at his father and made a small 'sniff' noise to express his frustration.

"That's right brat" Vegeta whispered as he allowed his little finger to be grasped in the small fist of the little boy in his arms. The child gurgled happily and clung on to the finger in a death grip that would have broken the bars of his crib. Vegeta raised an eyebrow at the boy's tiny fist. He was strong for his age. Definatly many times stronger than any human baby. It was nothing too impressive but there was great potential hidden behind those inquisitive blue eyes. After all, if the boy from the future was anything to go by then this trunks must be even stronger. Especially if he had more than just the half breed Gohan to train him.

A noise from down the hall caught Vegeta's attention and he quickly replaced the baby in his crib and moved into the shadows by the window curtains on the opposite side of the room to the door. The corner where he stood was completely in shadow and he seemed to melt into the darkness until only a feint outline could be seen.

The door opened quietly and the image of the person who entered almost made Vegeta's breath stick in his throat. The woman looked terrible! The dark lines around her eyes told of countless sleepless nights and her hair had dulled from its usual shiny aqua colour to a dull, dusty blue. She reached out to her baby with shaking hands and her wrists looked thinner than they had ever been before. She stroked her baby's purple bangs, seemingly without even wondering what had woken him from his sleep. The baby looked up at its mother with wide eyes as she smiled a thin smile back at him. With a deep, shaky sigh she looked up towards the window. Her blue eyes, which were normally so full of life and undying imagination were sunken and dull. Like her soul had died and left just a shell in its place.

Vegeta found himself wondering what on earth could have changed so much in one year to cause her to turn into this miserable creature which seemed to be barely clinging to any form of natural life at all. Could his long absence have affected her in such a drastic way? He had thought that she was too emotionally strong to allow herself to be pulled down in this way.

"Papa?" the baby said with a slightly saddened tone as he twisted round to look towards his father who was still hidden in the corner, as yet unnoticed by the woman he had left to train in the run up towards the cell games and then had not returned except to see his future son leave for his own timeline. Vegeta froze, he was sure the boy knew he was still there but had the woman noticed yet? He was sure she hadn't but the baby may have given his position away. He held his breath as the woman looked up sadly and gazed out of the window.

"I know, trunks, you miss you daddy don't you?" she whispered, her voice shaky and on the verge of tears, "so do I. I miss your daddy so much baby, if he was here none of his awful mess would ever have happened. I'm so sorry baby, I haven't seen you much recently have I? Mommy's just been a little confused at the moment. But everything's better now isn't it? Everything's all better." The tears began to slide down her cheeks as she hugged the baby close to her, "It would never have worked would it, eh Trunks? I couldn't do that to him, to either of them. I wouldn't have been able to stand your daddy hating me. And Yamcha is too much of a friend, isn't he?" the baby gurgled happily, "and what sort of life would that have been for a little one? Having a mother who could barley even look at it." by the look on her face she wasn't even talking to the baby anymore as she shut her eyes tightly as two more tears fell down her cheeks.

Vegeta frowned deeply in confusion and released the breath he hadn't realised he was holding. He blinked in shock as her head suddenly flew round and searched the area he was standing in with wide eyes filled with the irrational fear that was coursing thru her veins.

"Who's there?" she asked into the darkness with a shaky voice as she backed slowly towards the door. She wanted to turn the light on to reveal what the darkness of the room kept hidden but one worried glance to her right told her she was steadily backing away from the pull string near the baby's cot which would have illuminated the room in the electric glow that would have shown her fears to be unjust. The security of the capsule corporation residential compound was some of the best in the world, there was no way an intruder could have made it all the way up to this room without been detected. She searched the darkness, straining her eyes to identify every patch of darker shadow her eyes could see.

With a strangled yelp she turned and bolted towards the door as a sudden movement in the shadows caught her eye. She clutched her baby close to her chest with one arm as she reached out for the door handle with a shaking hand.

A strong arm wound its way round her waist halting her frightened dash towards the relative safety of the hallway. Her scream was muffled as a hand clamped down over her mouth and she was pulled backwards into what felt like a steel wall. A warm steel wall.

"Woman! Its me!" Vegeta whispered, his lips slightly brushing her ear. Bulma calmed down noticeably but was still far from relaxed as she suddenly froze in his arms. He slowly removed the hand from over her mouth and traced her jaw line lightly with his finger tips. He felt her tremble under his touch and he bit back a cringe at her response. "woman.... Bulma...." He began.

"What are you doing here Vegeta?" she whispered as she pulled out of his grasp and placed Trunks back in his cot. The boy just sat there and blinked up at his parents as Bulma turned and pushed past Vegeta to leave the room. He followed her into the master bedroom and thru to the en-suite bathroom. He leant casually on the doorframe and watched her closely as she leaned on the vanity and hung her head with a sigh. "you didn't answer my question, why are you here?"

"Where else would I go?" he answered after a pause as he stared into the hollow eyes of her reflection in the mirror.

"How about the place you've been hiding in for a year? How about some god-forsaken planet somewhere, I don't know, you tell me!" she yelled angrily. Vegeta's frown deepened as he realised that the anger she showed in her voice did not touch her eyes. Those beautiful eyes that would snap fire as her mouth spat poison were... lifeless, they showed nothing, and it scared him silly. When he made it clear that he had nothing to say she continued. "your timing really sucks Vegeta." All of the anger had drained from her voice, now she sounded... broken.

"Woman..."

"Oh gods, why wouldn't you have come back a few months ago?" she wailed as she cupped her face in her hands. She seemed to sag to the floor but Vegeta caught her and knelt down next to her, his arms wrapped protectively around her as she cried into his chest, "none of this would ever have happened."

"Woman..." Vegeta whispered, "what happened?" nothing seemed to make sense at all. Everything was different, the way she looked, acted, talked, even the way she smelled. He frowned as he concentrated on her scent, there was only one other time he could remember her smelling like that and that was when she was pregnant with Trunks. The realisation hit him harder than and physical attack ever had and ever would. What had he, in his absence, allowed to happen?

"Oh Vegeta!" she wailed as she clutched at his shirt, "I'm so sorry, really I am! I truly didn't mean for anything like this to happen ever!" she gasped and looked up into his face as she felt him pull way from her. The look on his face shocked her into silence. She had seen that mask on him once before. When he had first come to live with them after his resurrection. The mask that prevented anyone from seeing his true feelings, like he trusted no one.

"Who is it?" he asked, his voice cold and strained with barely contained rage.

"Vegeta...I was drunk! We both were, I didn't know what I was doing! I cant even remember it!"

"But you know who it was you took to your bed! Now tell me! who?!" he bellowed as he grabbed her by the arms and lifted her up to eye level.

"Vegeta! I cant be sure! Ow! Your hurting me!!" she squeaked as his fingers dug into the soft flesh of her arms. He let go of her immediately with a brief flash of self disgust crossing his face before it was covered again by the mask of contained anger.

"Well, lets see, who could it be? Not the baldy, he has his little wind-up toy now doesn't he. How about the three-eyed one? Has he had enough with his little doll companion thing?" when he got no response he carried on with an idea which had just struck him, "or how about that old flame of yours? I'm sure the scarred weakling would jump at the chance to get you into bed wouldn't he?" her cheeks flushed an embarrassed red and her eyes fell to the floor with shame. He had his answer.

"I see." He said with deadly coolness as he turned and left the room, exiting by the window and powering up into the sky.

"Oh no." Bulma whispered as she picked herself up from the bathroom floor and ran out of the room with shaking steps.


	6. Part 6

**Second Chances pt 6**

The music flowed smoothly out of the expensive stereo system in the candle lit lounge of the expensive penthouse apartment of the professional baseball star. He hummed quietly to himself as he flowed around the room putting the final touches to the romantic candle lit diner he had planned down to the last detail.

His heart skipped a beat when the doorbell rang, he sprang across the room and opened the door with a flourish. The slim young lady grinned at him from behind her thin framed glasses which made her look exactly like the aspiring young medical student she was.

"Wow!" he said with appreciation as he looked her up and down, "you look even more beautiful with each passing moment!"

"Thank you" she giggled as she took his hand. He pulled her gently into the room and shut the door behind her.

"Your table awaits my lady." He said as he bowed and lead her to the table, pulling out her chair for her.

"Why thank you." She said sweetly as she sat down and grinned up at him as she brushed a strand of her auburn hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. He hurried out of the room and then returned soon after with the starters of their meal and a bottle of white wine.

"wine for the lovely lady?" he said as he placed the plate in front of her and poured them both a glass of wine. He sat down opposite her and grinned at her as they rose their glasses and clinked them together before taking a sip.

An energy level that wasn't there a moment ago burst into his senses and made his blood run cold. That was one energy signature he had hoped never to feel again, and it was heading strait towards his apartment.

"Is something wrong Yamcha?" the young woman asked with a slight frown as she slowly lowered her wine glass from her lips.

Her heart rate suddenly jumped up and she knew she was about to start panicking. She was the envy of all the other girls in her class for going out with the charming and drop-dead-gorgeous baseball star and she had no intentions of letting him slip away. She desperately wanted this to work between them and even tho he was a few years older than her and she was going to do everything within her power to make it work. The thought that he might already be bored with her puzzled her to no end, she simply couldn't comprehend the possibility that any man could refuse her. After all her auburn hair was tinted to perfection, her face was the image of beauty itself and her voice was sweet and lilting. She was slim with curves in all the right places and if the looks she got from any passing man when she was wearing her student nurse's uniform were anything to go by she was simply irresistible. Ok so her intelligence sometimes scared men away but this time she had developed a fool proof plan to snare this man in her affections for as long as she wanted him.

"I don't know, its probably nothing." he said absently as he slowly rose from his chair. The energy signature had suddenly dropped so low he could barely read it and the fact that he could still sense it at such a level meant only one thing. It was close. Very close.

A window in the kitchen which was connected to the dining room suddenly burst open in a shower of broken glass causing both to flinch away. The young lady covered her head with her arms and squeaked a small scream as glass rained over them both.

Yamcha paled even more as he stood rooted to the spot and watched the shadowy figure float thru the window to land with a soft crunch on the broken glass on the kitchen floor, feet apart, arms folded across his chest.

"Well, well. What have we here." The all too familiar voice hissed as the intruder took a few steps towards the pale warrior, "how very romantic. She is your latest conquest then? tut tut tut."

"What are you doing here Vegeta?" Yamcha said, trying to keep his voice steady and calm down. There was no way Vegeta would come all this way out of hiding just to kill him. Goku may no longer be around to stop the insane little jerk from going on a killing spree but the other z fighters were and Gohan would definatly give the veggie-head a run for his money. "In case no one already told you, you aren't wanted here anymore. So you may as well pack up and leave. Permanently."

"Such brave words from the weakling"

"You don't have the right to mock me anymore Vegeta! You lost any respect you power earned you long ago when you let Bulma and baby trunks fall!" as Yamcha said the words Vegeta's face shifted from that ever confident smirk to a look of pure and barely restrained rage, "Trunks should have been my kid I would make a better father to him that you ever would!"

"Oh really?" Vegeta hissed with such venom that Yamcha was surprised the words alone didn't kill him, "well I suppose you almost had your wish then didn't you! You stupid bastard! Did you not think I would find out about this!" he bellowed as he flew at the taller warrior, forcing him back and pinning him against a wall. The woman's scream of surprise seemed to bring Yamcha out of some of the shock at seeing the long absent warrior enter through his window.

"What the hell are you talking about Vegeta?" he yelled in the other mans face.

"Oh, I'm sure you know! Don't you remember the night that you took what so clearly is too good to belong to you!?" Vegeta practically spat the words into Yamcha's face.

The taller man gulped at the lump that had formed in his throat and tried to remember even the smallest detail of that party which had all turned into a blur of drunkenness.

* * *

"ShitshitshitshitSHIT!" Bulma cursed as she sped thru the traffic on the busy road in her little sporty capsule car, "please, don't kill him Vegeta!"

She finally reached her destination as she pulled her car to a screeching halt outside the posh apartment block. She ran into the foyer and charged past the security guard to the lifts. After manhandling a small skinny man out of the way she launched herself into the lift and pushed the button for Yamcha's floor. She jumped up and down in frustration as the lift took what seemed like an eternity to climb up to the 53rd floor but eventually it arrived. Forcing herself out of the lift a split second after the doors opened the tiniest crack she ran a fast as her legs could carry her down the narrow corridors towards the door of her ex boyfriends apartment.


	7. Part 7

**Second Chances pt 7**

"I've already told you! I have no idea what your talking about!!" Yamcha yelled as best he could with Vegeta's hand pinning him to the wall.

"Well guess what! I don't believe you!" Vegeta yelled as he turned and threw Yamcha across the room. He hit the wall on the other side and slid down it clutching at his ribs.

"You ashole!" Yamcha spat a mouthful of blood onto the floor as he slowly stood up to face his opponent on his feet.

With a smirk Vegeta raised his right hand and formed an energy ball in his palm. Aiming it directly at Yamcha he chuckled evilly before firing it.

The next few moments seemed to flow in slow motion as he watched the glowing gold ball fly from his outstretched hand. A thin scream tickled at his ears a split second before he saw her. His blue haired woman suddenly appeared in-between himself and Yamcha who was still against the other wall. She was directly in the path of the energy ball.

He heard himself yell something incomprehensible as he swept both arms round to his side to alter the course of the attack.

Bulma stood rooted to the spot with her arms outstretched either side of her as she felt the attack zoom past the fingertips of her left arm. It crashed into the wall behind them causing it to explode and crumble, the force of which threw both Bulma and Yamcha a few feet away. as the dust settled only Vegeta was still standing, his eyes locked on the spot on which he had almost killed Bulma. He snapped out of his trance when he heard the weaklings voice speaking softly to someone.

"Bulma," Yamcha whispered as he gently shook her, "Bulma, are you ok?" she was on the verge of unconsciousness and moaned slightly as she reached a hand up to her head.

"What...happened?" she asked weakly as she opened her eyes in time to see Yamcha being ripped violently away from her and thrown back across the trashed room by a viciously snarling Vegeta.

"Keep your hands off of her!" he snarled as he crouched low on the ground in-between his woman and his rival.

"I could say the same to you, you cold blooded monster!" Yamcha spat back as he too lowered himself into an attack position.

"Vegeta." Bulma said weakly as she tried to push herself up off the floor. He turned his head slightly to look at her out of the corner of his eye while still being able to see what Yamcha was doing, "Please, leave him...doesn't know....it...doesn't matter now...anyway." She said as she tried to rub away the throbbing ache on the back of her head.

"Don't try and talk to him Bulma! It wont do any good, he'll just get mad at you too! And then who knows what he'll do!" Yamcha glared viciously at his opponent, Vegeta was standing too close to Bulma. If he were to attack now, he would hit them both!

"Shut up you fool!" Vegeta yelled as his energy level rose up again.

"Please, Vegeta... forget about it...its gone now...I never....even told him." She was slipping back into unconsciousness. Vegeta felt himself pale slightly as he slowly rose from his battle stance. Humans were weaker than Saiyans, they had less of a tolerance for internal injuries before they lost consciousness and then that was an internal protective reaction to avoid further injury. She had hit her head when she fell, something serious could be wrong with her!

'This is the problem with mating with weaker species!' Vegeta thought to himself as he moved to her side and gathered her up in his arms as gently as he could.

"Where the hell are you taking her Vegeta! Put her down! I will not let you hurt her anymore!" Yamcha yelled as he dashed forwards a few steps before being halted by a glare from Vegeta that could quite probably kill a weaker human.

"Would you prefer it if I left her here to die slowly?" he said with some measure on control from his voice before flying out of the broke kitchen window.

"Where the fuck is he going?" Yamcha asked himself again before following out of the window at a safe distance and keeping his energy levels down.

In the far corner of the room, completely forgotten by all other who had just left...out of the window no less, was the poor student who had managed to stop screaming after a while. Her face was deathly pale and she blinked like an owl as if finally comprehending what had just happened. With a slight whimper she leaped to her feet and ran from the room and kept on running until she got to her own home and hid under the covers of her bed and cried.


	8. Part 8

**Second Chances pt 8**

"Oh, I wish I were in some fairytale land when a handsome Prince Charming would ride along on his white steed to sweep me off my feet!" Mrs Briefs said whimsically as she placed her finished book down on the coffee table.

"Humph." Dr briefs raised an eyebrow and look at his day-dreaming wife over his paper.

"Oh don't worry darling, you will always be my Prince Charming!" she giggled to herself as she stood up and walked across the room, swishing her hips, to the bookcase where she deposited her latest completed read alongside the rest. She was about to say more when the sound of the kitchen door opening with a loud bang rippled thru the walls of the house.

"You! Old man! Infirmary! NOW!" a vice that neither of them had heard in about one year bellowed from the hallway as hurried steps could be heard heading toward the medical wing which held the Brief's own small medical facility,

"What in the world....?" Dr Briefs mumbled as he stood from his chair.

"Oooh! Good, that nice young man is back! Bulma will be so pleased!" Mrs Briefs giggled happily as she too rose from her seat and hurried into the hall to find Vegeta and give him a proper welcome. Dr Briefs however, had caught the aggravation in the voice of his Daughters 'friend' and, dare he say it, concern.

The oddly matched couple hurried down the halls which Vegeta had run down moments before until they came to the medical wing. Door after door had been left swinging wide in the wake of the Saiyan's path, until he had arrived at the room in which he himself had been brought back from the brink of death when he had overdone his training. Dr and Mrs Briefs arrived in the room as Vegeta gently put Bulma down on the hospital bed. His sharp eyes shot up to meet those of Dr Briefs who hesitated only a moment before rushing to the side of his unconscious daughter.

"Injuries?" he asked quietly, knowing that he had to choose his words carefully around the touchy man, accusations would not sit well.

"She fell, hit her head." Vegeta said quickly as he took a small step away to allow Dr. Briefs room to examine her.

"Come on now Vegeta, lets give her some room now. Would you like some cookies?" Mrs Briefs asked with her trademark smile spread wide across her face. She ushered the confused-looking Vegeta out of the room and back towards the kitchen.

'_This woman cant be serious! Her daughter is lying in there unconscious and all she can think about is feeding me?'_ he thought to himself as he found himself sitting down in the kitchen chair. Mrs Briefs placed a plate piled high with different flavoured cookies, _'then again, maybe she's the only one around here with her priorities straight'_ he thought with a slight smirk. However, it quickly faded, his mind would not seem to let him hold onto that idea that he needed every sentient creature in reality to bow at his feet. For some reason, that just didn't seem important anymore. With a heavy he picked up a chocolate chip cookie and nibble on the edge. He hadn't had a good meal in a long time but for some reason he could not fathom he just wasn't interested in food.

'_In the space of a few years my life has been periodically flipped upside down and turned inside out! First Freeza, then Kakkarott, then the androids...and now Bulma. It has got to be this planet! Its making me go soft! Why didn't I just kill that weakling son of a bitch?' _Vegeta's thoughts wandered as he sat in the quiet kitchen, he hadn't even noticed when Mrs Briefs left the room to attend to other chores.

Vegeta had become engulfed in his thoughts and had failed to notice the passage of time until Dr. Briefs entered the kitchen and stood in the doorway. The pair made eye contact for a moment until Dr Briefs nodded slightly then turned to leave. After a few moments Vegeta stood and made his way back to the medical room.

As he closed the door slowly behind him he breathed a sigh which could have been described as relief, but since there was no one around to see, it mattered little. Bulma was sleeping peacefully on the bed, the covers moving slightly as she breathed. Satisfied that the lack of health-monitoring machinery normally found around injured patients meant she was going to be fine, he made his way to her side.

He reached out slowly and twisted a lock of her blue hair, gently in his fingers. The back of his hand trailing lightly down her cheek. This was all his fault. She had wanted to stop him, to protect the weakling. She had also allowed herself to become pregnant with his child.

His eyes shut tightly as he attempted to banish that last thought from his ever tormented mind. It seemed he was never to have peace even within his own body! He had spent a year waging a war within himself over his own 'feelings' only to find that she had allowed another to touch her! He forced down the volcano of rage which threatened to explode within him once again. He focused on controlling his breathing to the extent of near meditation, so much so that he failed to notice the slightly surprised pair of blue eyes gazing up at him.

"V-Vegeta?" she asked in a whisper, almost afraid to break his concentration. His eyes snapped open immediately and he gasped slightly before holding his breath as he looked down at the woman on the bed below him.

"Bulma. I-"he began to say something but cut himself off before the sentence could form fully. A small smile pulled at the corners of Bulma's lips at the sound of her name falling from Vegeta's lips so easily. The smile faded however when she saw the pain, regret and loss hidden in his eyes. She reached up gingerly with one hand and cupped her palm against his cheek. His eyes drifted closed for a moment as he unconsciously leaned into her hand.

"I'm so sorry! You have to believe me Vegeta. I know how you must hate me now." She pulled her hand away as she blinked the tears out of her eyes, "you have every rite to be, I know that I will only deserve it if you decide to leave. I'm not going to try and make any excuses, and I wont stop you. After all, whining about it is only going to show how weak I am isn't it?"

"Woman. Why change the habit of a lifetime?"

"I-I I just want you to know. I do love you! I love you with everything I have! And... I guess it took loosing you to realise that." She wanted to say more, needed to get everything her heart wanted her to but her breath caught in her throat, causing her to choke on her words.

"Loosing me? I came back didn't I?"

"I always knew you would come back here when you were ready, I don't mean that," she paused to catch her breath, suppress the sobs threatening to take her over completely, "but I think I have lost you, I can see it in your eyes. I lost you as soon as I – as soon as I slept – w-with Y-Y-Yamcha." She forced the words out of her throat with a harsh sob as she turned her face away from him, tears soaking the pillow beneath her head.

"I should leave, after what you have done." He said as he turned his back on her with a tired sigh, "you must truly be some type of sorceress, tell me, when was it that you found time and opportunity to put a curse on me?" she blinked once and frowned up at his back, "you must have used some form of curse in order to have such a hold over me, woman." He turned back to her, looking deep into her eyes, "when I was away you were the only thing which entered my mind, aside from food of course."

"Of course."

"Yet despite my desire to leave this god forsaken mud ball you and your pathetic race call home, it is nothing compared to my desire to have you... as my Queen." His voice slipped down to a husky whisper, "if you shall have me."

"But-I c-cheated on you! How could you ever trust me again Vegeta? I know I wouldn't if I were in your place."

"True, you were disloyal to me. But wandering thoughts and emotions seem to run high amongst humans. Especially in the absence of a life-mate which you would call a husband." That damned smirk which always sent a shiver up her spine spread across his lips, "I guess ill just have to make sure that you never allow your thoughts to wander ever again." He breathed as he leaned down towards her, their noses almost touching.

"You mean... Vegeta. Will you forgive me? I'm promising you in truth that as long as I live and into the after life beyond, I shall never take another man besides you to my bed." Her tears were still falling down her cheeks and he scowled at them as if that look alone would stop them from falling. He raised one gloved finger to her cheek capturing a single tear whilst on its course to the pillow.

"Of course I would, woman."

"Just one question Vegeta." She paused as if waiting for him to protest, "why do you always wear those gloves?"

"Because, if I didn't I would never have been able to touch you in the first place. I would not taint your skin with mine had it been soaked in the blood of those who were my victims." His eyes grew distant, reliving all the times he had sent screaming women, just like the one that lay before him, to their deaths. The barely shielded pain in his eyes was almost enough to cause her to break down in tears and hold him, never to let go. With this thought she shuddered slightly trying not to think too deeply about his past.

"If you can forgive me my 'human weaknesses', I can forgive you the insanity of your youth, Vegeta." She spoke softly as she held his face in her hands forcing him to look deep into her eyes. An instant later, their lips met in the passionate symbol of their forgiveness and patience for one another, and quite possibly, as a token of their undying love, weather it was shown openly or hidden away in the darkest corners of the soul. The only thing that mattered to either of them, was that it was there.

_Fin_

A/N: well, there you go, too long for a one shot eh? lol. it works better this way. I cant believe i did a sappy ending! annyway, if you have any oppinions, comments, criticisms or even Flames if you so wish then leave a review!

thanks for reading!

Female Typhoon


End file.
